Getting A Taste Of Reality

Dashed Dreams Force Many Into Bankruptcy

April 2, 1989|By Harry Straight of The Sentinel Staff

Central Florida is experiencing a rapid rise in personal and business bankruptcy filings as more newcomers, lured by the promise of a better life in the Sunshine State, find the pot at the end of Florida's rainbow is filled with debts.

Bankruptcy courts in the Middle District of Florida, which includes Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville, report record increases in bankruptcy filings. Bankruptcies in the Orlando area alone have risen nearly 66 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 1988.

Florida's Middle District had the sixth highest rate of increase in bankruptcy filings nationwide from 1984 to 1988, according to federal court records.

What makes Central Florida's case unique is that the only states that outrank Florida in the rate of increase in bankruptcy filings are Alaska and Texas, where plunging oil prices and other economic problem are well documented.

But why are so many folks going broke in Florida?

This is supposed to be the land of growth and opportunity. Orlando was recently ranked by Newsweek as one of the 10 best communities in the country and the Orlando/Kissimmee area ranked 4th in the nation in job growth for small businesses, according to a study done by Cognetics Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. Unemployment is low and job opportunities are abundant.

''People are flocking here for every reason you can name, tremendous opportunity and tremendous growth and great weather - but a lot of them find that they just can't make it,'' said Andrea Ruff, a bankruptcy lawyer who has practiced in Orlando since 1983.

''We have national firms coming in to compete with architects, accountants, printers, rental companies. And local companies, although they are well-established, have a tough time with the competition,'' she said.

Against those odds, in march the newcomers: retirees who have sold their homes and businesses in the North and moved down for the easy living, and budding entrepreneurs who believe they can make it in Florida.

Ronald and Carol Sabre are a case in point. Lured to Florida by the promise of a better life, they now know how easy it is to go bust in a boom town.

When they moved to Orlando from Waterbury, Conn., two years ago, it was to start a new life. At 50, Ronald Sabre had been in the painting business 35 years. But he had a bad back and the cold northern winters didn't help.

Florida was his hope. His sister lived in Miami and Orlando appeared to be a land of golden opportunity.

After two trips to check it out, he packed up his wife, two teen-agers and his life savings and headed south. They made a $24,000 down payment on a house in the Wekiva area of Seminole County and took out a second mortgage to finance a new swimming pool.

Counting on the skills he'd developed from a lifetime of work, Sabre started a painting contracting business. And he got jobs. But his luck turned, he said, when a few contractors he worked for went under and didn't pay him.

Sabre tried to get hired by other painting crews to make ends meet, but he ran into one of the realities of life in Florida that most newcomers just don't realize. ''They wanted to pay me $4 an hour. I can't live on that,'' he said.

His wife Carol, 39, went back to work as a hairdresser. But the money crunch got worse. One of their cars was repossessed. They had to turn the other one over to the finance company.

And they filed for bankruptcy.

''It ripped us apart,'' Carol said. ''When I got to the lawyer's office, I just burst into tears.''

And the Sabres are just one case among thousands, with the numbers increasing every day. From 1984 to mid-1988 the total number of bankruptcies filed in the Middle District of Florida rose 182 percent, from 4,774 to 8,838, according to court records.

''There's a good many people who come down here with a mind set that says things are going to be easier than where they came from,'' Poe said.

The Sabres believed if they just hung on, things would get better, but they didn't and now they are bitter about their experience.

''Central Florida is a big fantasy world for vacation or retirees,'' Ronald said. ''I see people sleeping on the side of the road. I'm not hostile to Florida, I love the weather here, if I didn't I wouldn't have bought a home. I've got a beautiful yard. But this is not the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end. What's the use of all this if you can't pay for it?''

The Sabre's have a sale pending on their house and even if they get a good price, they say they have lost more than $200,000 since coming to Florida.

''We're moving back to Connecticut - at least I can get a good job there,'' Ronald Sabre said.